Tag: Poland

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday signed into law a bill that largely limits trade on Sundays, saying it will benefit employees’ family life.

The legislation, worked out by the conservative government and the Solidarity trade union, is expected to draw protests from large Western supermarket chains that are the main target of the law. A large part of their profit is earned on weekends, when many do their big weekly shop. Critics say some of them make employees work long hours for modest pay. Continue reading →

“Under the legislation, which will now go to the upper house of parliament for further debate, trading will be banned on two Sundays a month from March 1 next year. The ban will be stepped up to three Sundays a month in 2019, while in 2020 trading will be prohibited except on seven Sundays a year. The ban will not apply to online stores, fuel stations, railway stations, pharmacies and some florists. The legislation was backed by 254 members of the 460-seat lower house of Poland’s parliament, with 156 against and 23 abstaining. A survey found last month that 51% of Poles were in favour of restricting shopping in Poland on all Sundays.” –Source

More than 500 000 Poles have supported the civic draft law on limitation of trade on Sundays.

On 2 September, the signatures were submitted to the Speaker of the Polish Parliament (Sejm), Marek Kuchcińskiemu. Now the bill will be proceeded by the Sejm.

‘Employees in the Polish commerce sector are eagerly waiting for this law to come into force as soon as possible’ said Alfred Bujara, the President of the Solidarity Commerce trade union and the chairman of the Legislative Initiative Committee during delivering the signatures in the Parliament. He stressed that the gathering of such a large number of signatures is a great success of all the people who were involved in this initiative. ‘This bill has the support of the society. Poles willingly signed the project, including employees in the commerce sector. They are overworked, they do not even want any additional bonus for working on Sundays. They want this day to spend it with their families’. Continue reading →